Ooo, provocative, right? The notion of “cultural Identity” seems to be driving much in politics and the media these days, but this post is not a political piece. I’m not really interested in people’s politics and I, myself, am a centrist and an independent. I’ve tried hard to remain in the middle where I believe the best answers can be found. I believe that differences are inevitable, but divisions can be avoided with hard work in a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood. So, the question, “Am I proud of my cultural heritage?” hit me this morning as I read a news piece about the “Proud Boys” going to jail for participation in the Capital Riots. I thought about it for a while and decided to write my thoughts out as usual. Most reasonable people would agree that the word “proud” is multidimensional. If I say that I’m proud of something, people take the meaning differently than if I say that I’m “prideful.” So, if I just consider the dimensions of the word “proud” that might be semantically similar with “love” and/or “thankfulness,” then, “yes,” I am proud of my cultural heritage. Let me explain:

I see my cultural and ancestral heritage as a deep well from which to draw, and as a library to preserve as a collective artifact. I’m an American of Northern European descent. I’m a Christian who was raised a Protestant, but became a Catholic. I am who I am so I can’t apologize for being a white male, born into a Christian family. That should not brand me a conservative or as less of a progressive. It just is what it is. If I was born a human cub and raised by gorillas, I’d be - well - a Disney character... What I “do” with that inherited condition in this limited life does have significance and consequence. Being connected to the people of the past is important to me because it helps to guide me with long-term memory. My ancestors were as I am - flawed and imperfect. In my pursuit of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, I find much that I truly “love” and appreciate in my cultural and ancestral heritage. But, when I draw from that deep well, I also find a potent share of the “bad,” the “false,” and the “ugly.” I’m “thankful” for that. I can do the hard work of learning from the “yuck” of my forebears' lives, while the more lovely aspects of their legacy ground and sustain me through the effort. This, I hope, is “centering,” and promotes an “independent” viewpoint - a viewpoint that can be shared constructively with others drawing from their own wells. Cultural “exchange,” afterall, has advanced humanity through the ages.

The danger comes in the extremes, and unsavory people profit by fueling those extremes. If those who lean more “conservatively” romanticize their history, seeing only the good, the true, and the beautiful, what then? The perspective changes to one of superiority. Perhaps we move from being “proud” to being “prideful.” To look into the well and just see the good, the true, and the beautiful is to selectively see the surface only and this is simply “shallow.” We never get far in our arguments when we come off as shallow. Instead, we get rightly dismissed. Nothing constructive can happen when a shallow case is brought forward. Likewise, if those who lean more “progressively” look selectively into their well and see nothing but the bad, the false, and the ugly, what then? In their own shallow, surface scan, they quickly toss the bucket, abandon the well, and take nothing of the good, the true, and the beautiful it offers, let alone anything from the “depth” of the lessons it can teach in its ugly yield. For those leaning too far “left,” what is good, true, and beautiful can just become “relative.” Relativity might seem more culturally sensitive and evolved, but what value can be derived in healthy cultural exchange if participants have dismissed their own cultural “well” from which both loveliness and lessons should be drawn? Extreme views are shallow views on both sides. Humanity and its advancement goes nowhere, and divisions on the basis of “cultural identity” have historically led to all out violence. Both extremes are shallow and shallow people are easily led in blind allegiance.

So, “yes,” I am proud of the cultural and ancestral “wellspring” that I’m able to draw from to inform my own limited understanding and experience of life in “my” time. In the past, I can find comfort in the good, the true, and the beautiful that my collective forebears were able to surmise during their short lifespans. I can smile and give them a nod across time and space for what they got right - collectively. I can also bow my head in solace; acknowledging what they got wrong, and the legacy that those wrongs left too, as a consequence of their human limitations - limitations that I share. I can constructively take those as lessons into my own exchanges with others who are able to make similar, objective appraisals of their own wellsprings. This is also a key reason for my decision to take more time to write my thoughts and ideas. We, in our time, are adding to the wells that our descendants will draw from. Will they just do a surface scan? Will they learn anything that serves them better? Will they just toss the bucket? In the last moments of your life when you get to see what you’ve dropped into the well with a clarity that only God above can reveal, what do you want your great grandchildren to take away from the good, the bad, the true, the false, the beautiful, and the ugliness of your own contribution to it?